E! is a European

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel, operated by E! Entertainment Europe B.V. and owned by

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

Sky Group Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate owned by Comcast and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media co ...

. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television and Hollywood gossip and news. E! currently has an audience reach of 600 million homes internationally.

History

E! in Europe before 2004

E! Entertainment Television was founded by

Larry Namer Larry Namer is an entertainment and media entrepreneur of ''Movies USA Magazine''. Biography Namer attended Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, New York), Abraham Lincoln High School, graduating in 1966. He then attended Brooklyn College, grad ...

and Alan Mruvka in the United States. The network launched on 31 July 1987 as Movietime, a service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event and awards coverage, and interviews as an early example of a national

barker channel A barker channel is a form of digital signage, operating in the form of a television channel that is entirely composed of sales promotion and advertising, usually marketing various features of the service carrying the channel. The name is derived ...

. Three years later, in June 1990, Movietime was renamed E! Entertainment Television to emphasise its widening coverage of the celebrity–industrial complex, contemporary film, television and music, daily Hollywood gossip, and fashion. In the Fall of 1999, Zone Vision launched E! Entertainment in Poland, under a licensing agreement on the Polish digital platform Wizja TV, with Zone's Studio Company providing localized content. The channel was shut down by 2002.

E! enters Europe

In 2002 E! launched in Europe with its headquarters situated in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. One of the first countries E! broadcast in was Germany, where it telecast daily. In the Summer of 2006 E! began localizing in France, Italy and the UK. At the end of 2011 E! launched in HD in Eastern Europe. Followed by a launch in the UK and in Ireland on 8 October 2012, Germany on 30 April 2013 and other European countries.

Universal Channel and E!’s Closure in Russia

On 30 April 2015, E! was closed during technical problems, along with

Universal Channel Universal TV, formerly Universal Channel, is an international pay television network specializing in movies and television series in the Thriller (genre), thriller, Drama (genre), drama, comedy, Horror (genre), horror, Crime (genre), crime and in ...

E! in the UK and Ireland

E! in the UK and Ireland was a lifestyle channel with E! America's content like E! News and Live from the Red Carpet dropped. The promos/trailers for E! have also ceased. The channel closed on 31 December 2023. E! has localised versions of the same channel, including: * E! (Africa) * E! (Balkans) * E! (Benelux) * E! (France) * E! (Greece and Cyprus) * E! (Israel) * E! (Poland) * E! (Portugal) * E! (Romania) * E! (Scandinavia) * E! (Serbia) * E! (Slovenia) Closed channels: * E! (Germany) * E! (UK and Ireland) * E! (Italy) * E! (Russia)

Programming

References

External links